I don’t know what’s happened to Ringo today but for some reason he has failed to turn up.
We were told that this was “a topical puzzle” and indeed that is so since today is the opening day of an event at the NEC, Crufts dog show. Various breeds of dog were defined by ‘shown’.
I quickly got the theme from 10ac (for once I started at the beginning instead of working backwards as I frequently do). Most of the canines were known to me but I must admit to not having heard of 1ac or 6dn. I am also fortunate to be of an age to know of the folk group featured in 8dn.
| Across | ||
| 1 | VALLHUND | V (against) ALL (100%) HUN D (Germans) – strictly speaking D is Germany rather than German |
| 5 | ABACUS | anagram (problem) of A SCUBA |
| 9 | VANGUARD | VAN (transport) GUARD (police) |
| 10 | SALUKI | hidden in ‘univerSAL UK Independence’ |
| 12 | CHILDHOOD | CHILD HOOD – punk was a youth movement in the ‘70s and Collins also defines punk as “a petty criminal or hoodlum” |
| 13,16 | CAIRN TERRIER | NT (landowners) in IRE (rage) in CARRIER (messenger) |
| 19 | POOR LAW | POOR (broke) LAW (rule) |
| 21,14 | PUNK ROCK | PUN (joke) homophone (hearing) of ‘crock’ (damage) – I’m not sure that crock is synonymous with damage, at least according to the definitions in Chambers |
| 24,20,3 | IRISH WOLFHOUND | anagram (played) of HOW FLUID HORN IS |
| 25 | LHASA APSO | anagram (broken) of PA[r]ASOL HAS |
| 27 | GLOOMY | LOO (can) in GM (carmaker) [stor]Y |
| 28,16 | LAKELAND TERRIER | anagram (disastrous) of K LEAR IN RED ALERT |
| 29 | RESENT | double def. |
| 30 | SHEEPDOG | cryptic reference to “One man and his dog” a TV programme featuring sheepdog trials |
| Down | ||
| 1 | VIVACE | VI (six) V (five) ACE (serve) |
| 2 | LENTIL | LENT (fast) I (one) [hea]L[thy] |
| 4,16 | NORFOLK TERRIER | NOR (no alternative) FOLK (people) TERRIER (volunteer) |
| 6 | BEAUCERON | anagram (criminal) of UNRECO[gnis]AB[l]E |
| 7 | CRUCIFIX | CRUX (heart) around (embraces) [s]CI FI (topless film genre) |
| 8 | SPINNERS | double def. – a reference to this former group |
| 11 | EDIT | TIDE (maybe spring) reversed |
| 15 | OKLAHOMAN | OKLAHOMA (musical) N (number) |
| 17 | SPRINGER | PR (plug) in SINGER (26, for example) |
| 18 | DOMINOES | anagram (devised) of [th]OM[as]EDISON |
| 21,3 | PHARAOH HOUND | anagram (mischievous) of HAND UP HOORAH |
| 22 | UPWARD | UP (in the direction of city) WARD (district) |
| 23 | HOTDOG | pun & def. |
| 26 | ADELE | hidden reversal in ‘unparallELED About’ |
I found this pretty tough – I’m far from knowledgeable about dogs so I took me a while to discover the theme. A big breakthrough was to get HOUND from considering the (8) letters shared between the anagram fodder of those two clues. It was a great joke at the end to understand the ‘not shown’ clue to HOTDOG which was my last entry. Thanks, Gaff and Gaufrid.
Thanks Gaff and Gaufrid. Ringo must have ‘gone to the dogs’ (sorry)! 10ac was also my way in to the theme – after that it required reference to a canine website to confirm some of the more obscure breeds.
Thanks to the two Gs…….crock can mean damage in terms of an injury, often used in sport?
Hi Ferret
I take your point but surely the expression would be “he’s crock” which would equate with “he’s injured” or “he’s damaged his [whatever]”. I’ve now had time to check Collins and COED and I still cannot find a definition for crock that equates with damage either as a noun or a verb.
PS
Are you sure you’re not gettin confused with the Aussie slang “he’s crook”?
Hi Gaufrid
Try this from the Daily Mail last October – the headline is “Crocked Cleverley to miss Champions League clash with Galati”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2055576/Tom-Cleverley-ankle-injury-misses-Manchester-United-Galati.html
I think this is crock² vt to disable (Chambers 2008 and 2011).
Thanks Gaufrid.
I’m still trying to get from ‘Germans’ to HUND.
In German, I think D. is an abbreviation for Damen, ladies.
So HUN could be one German and D could be some more.